Idyll's End
by TheGoddamazon
Summary: Two vignettes. Nadja speaks with her daughter, Sundari, about the nature of her internment within Shade Enclave. And then, Escanor inquires as to why Nadja decided to summarily return despite the horrors experienced within.


**Author's Note:** These are vignettes from a three-year campaign I ran that took place in Shade Enclave and on the Sword Coast. Nadja's adventures ended in Shade Enclave, and for two years, she lingered as both Hadrhune's prisoner and lover (a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome if ever there was one). The result? What you see me post.

"Do you love him?" Sundari's voice shook with hurt…and hatred. Whether it was for herself or for the one she spoke of, Nadja could not tell. Nadja hesitated, and that was all the answer Sundari needed. Since her internment in Thultanthar, Nadja had become a woman who spoke very little and did even less. Sundari worried that she may have been sick from whatever torments she had endured to save her comrades…but she had never hedged a bet on _love _sickness.

"But he hurt you, didn't he? You don't have to tell me, I can see it in your eyes. He did awful things to you. You _can't _love him." Nadja picked at her plate as if she were trying to decide if the meat she was eating still somehow drew breath, but she could not speak…not of Hadrhune.

Not yet.

"Sundari," she said calmly, but her voice held the tremor of some underlying insecurity that the _Viperinae _sought to eke out, "I can't explain to you what happened because even I'm not so sure. If…if he had wanted to, at any time, he could have killed me." And he had, several times—both for insolence and because it amused him to see how beautifully she could die. Sundari's lavender eyes flared in anger at the thought, but Nadja looked up to stymie her fury before it destroyed the dinner table.

"If he had wanted to, Telamont could have seen me dead as well…but instead, he had me sent away. I do not know why he did not simply kill me, or why Hadrhu—" Sundari hissed before she could get the name out. Hadrhune, the one who had turned the spitting viper into a harmless bull snake. Nadja's venom was not as potent as it had been prior to her stay in Shade Enclave, and contracts sat unsigned in her bedroom on the modest desk that served as her office. The _Viperinae _needed a vacation, and here in Waterdeep is not where she would find a reprieve.

"I should have killed him when I had the chance." Sundari muttered. Nadja allowed herself a secret smile.

"Could you have done so, Sundari? He is not feared without reason, and while your magic is strong, he was able to end my life with a thought. How would you have combated that, my little moon and stars?" Sundari fell into an uncomfortable silence, slouching in her seat and gnawing at her lower lip.

"I could've used Avashi."

"And you would bring down the ire of the Most High upon us all. And even you know that is a force that all in Faerun fear for good reason. He is capable of too much, and one reckless psion wielding a godblade would not have made much difference." Sundari crossed her arms, then, and snorted. Nadja leaned forward across the small table, brushing her fingertips along her daughter's dark cheek.

"Don't worry about it, Sundari. I am alright, and we are alive. That's all that matters. I'm leaving for Rhy'din on the morrow, and I should be back in a tenday or so…think you can run the place in my stead? Or need I consult with Maribasse again?" Sundari's lip curled.

"I don't break bread with my enemies." And dinner continued in silence.

"Why is your daughter not with you, Nadja?" Escanor's voice nettled at her nerves today, and Hadrhune's alleged "sabbatical" gave him the opportunity to torment the Adder a little more than usual. After all, despite her considerable strengths, here in Thultanthar, without Hadrhune, she was implicitly vulnerable. Nadja looked up from the tray she was holding. Becoming Escanor's servant was the only way she could occupy herself without having him employ her actual talents. And because he knew this, he'd run her ragged whenever he saw fit. Nadja considered before answering and finally allowed herself a smile.

"She had no desire to see this place again. She still holds something of a grudge against Hadrhune for her last visit." Escanor watched the Adder closely, tried to read the lines of her body and found her impossible to translate. How had Hadrhune come to know the Adder so well in so short a time? After all, all he'd done was torture the woman for months at a time—how had that given him insight into the serpent's mannerisms? Nadja's eyes narrowed.

"Something the matter, my Prince?" She asked him coolly, her voice a drop of ice water that tried to extinguish the fire of Escanor's glowing amber eyes. Escanor enamored her his fanged grin as only a Prince of Shade could and he bade her to sit. Nadja, for all her wanting to give the Prince no cause for suspicion, did not obey.

"Nothing is wrong, Nadja. It's just that, memory serve, you told me you and Hadrhune parted on unpleasant terms, and that you had every intention of avoiding him during your stay here." Nadja's head canted, and the nettling grew worse. Escanor rose, and again she was reminded of her vulnerability when he stepped away from the table and stood before her, her nose barely reaching his chest. The Princes of Shade were slender, but they were not small in stature. Escanor's gloved fingers tipped Nadja's chin up.

"We are not barbarians, Nadja. Not all of us, anyway," and Nadja knew he was referring snidely to Hadrhune. She wanted to laugh. Of all the Shade Princes she had met, Hadrhune was the only one who acted like royalty should…then again; she was biased in that regard. Escanor's fingertips traced the line of her jaw where he spotted the fading bruise along her neck and grinned hard.

"I see the two of you have reconciled and that Hadrhune may not be such a soft-handed fool after all." Nadja jerked her head from his touch, disgusted.

"It is no concern of yours whether we fight or…_reconcile_." She said the word as if she could spit venom and Escanor laughed at her.

"But it is my concern. I can't have your _needs _interfering with your obligations to me. And my father certainly can't have his precious Right Hand distracted by a stray snake…no matter how beautiful her scales…or talented her tongue." Nadja's lip curled.

"I hardly see how my personal life interferes with your villa being scrubbed, and last I checked, Hadrh—" She stopped then, realizing she'd walked into a trap. Escanor patted her cheek and she didn't have the strength to recoil this time.

"So you love him, and if I am right, his strange behavior means he exhibits mutual behavior. You are dismissed for now, Nadja. I will summon you on the morrow." Nadja gladly turned on her heel to leave, but not before she felt the ominous pressure of Escanor's last words.

"He will come to realize his mistake in time."


End file.
